A not so cost effective solar panel road in Idaho, considering it was funded with $4.3 million, produces enough juice to just barely power a small device such as a microwave oven. In late March, the Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project posted data which was rather disappointing, as the very expensive road could only generate 0.62 kWh worth of energy on a daily average.
In detail, on March 29th 0.26 kWh was generated from the road panels, which for example can’t even power a PC monitor. Two days later, official readings showed that 1.06 kWh of energy was generated by the panels, which should be enough to power a domestic refrigerator. This low power output of the Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project is caused by design fault but even if that was not the case the and the road panels actually worked as intended, the energy generated would not justify the cost of the project itself because the energy produced daily does not exceed the worth of 90 cents.
Eventually, the Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project “burst into flames” due to an electrical box which caught fire. The fire was captured in a series of screenshots taken in late March. Firefighters rushed to the scene and issued an update on the official project’s webcam reading: “The Solar Roadways electrical system is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back late next week.”
It’s a shame that it didn’t work out the way they wanted it to, it sounds really cool. They should sell their company to Elon Musk and let him do it right 😛
Physically it’s total bullshit of idea to lay solar panels flat on the ground. Because flat on the ground the panels produce around half the power the an rooftop panel
Was those $4.3 millions public money or private investment? In case it was public money, was anyone in Idaho gone to jail? You don’t spent $4.3 millions just to test an idea. They probably had a small, let’s say 100 meters, road tested before throwing $4.3 millions and probably they knew it was going to fail. If they haven’t tested before or if they knew it was going to be a failure, someone should go in jail, if it was a public investment, or fired if it was a private investment.
You are joking right? Have you not seen the billions spent by the military all the time just to test out unproven tech? With your logic we should arrest much of the top military brass as well as many elected officials.
Seriously, you actually want to arrest someone for spending public money in the hopes that something awesome for the world will come of it. But then having it fall to do enough? You are dumb. This is how progress is made. Try until you succeed.
Maybe you should. But I bet they will point at Syria, then at EU, mention Brexit as something that happened because of the refugees fleeing Syria, insist that this was a major blow to EU, that will keep it from becoming an alternative western power to US and come to the conclusion that it was worth it. As an icing on the cake they will show a chart showing how much the dollar was strengthened against the euro, this last year alone. Then they will throw a few powerpoints about how much money US oil companies have managed to make thanks to the control over Iraq, and a few more powerpoints about how much money US contraction companies will make while rebuilding Syria. Not to mention how happy Israelis will be with the destruction of Syria. In the end even you will be convinced that those money where well spent.
As for your last paragraph, this is the way to make money on the backs of taxpayers. Maybe that’s how YOU make money, that’s why you call the others dumb.
There are plenty of videos that show that this solar panel road was a scam. Watch them, then call me dumb. You don’t build a carrier and throw it on the water to see if it floats you moron. You start by testing a small boat first. They throw 4.3 millions just to test an idea? Are you really so stupid? See the videos. Some small tests they have done in public where absolute failures. This didn’t stopped anyone throwing 4.3 million dollars.